Kamal Ghorui
PUNE: The Grand Final of the 3rd National Indirect Tax Moot Court Competition was held recently at the Indian Law Society’s (ILS) Law College, Pune. The competition was jointly organized by the Chamber of Tax Consultants (CTC) and ILS Law College and is recognised as India’s only moot court competition exclusively dedicated to indirect tax laws.Following multiple online rounds conducted in December 2025, two finalist teams advanced to the final round and presented their arguments before a distinguished bench comprising Justice Milind N. Jadhav of the Bombay High Court and retired Justice Shrikant Kulkarni.The final moot proposition dealt with complex legal issues, including the applicability of pre-GST excise orders under the GST regime, classification disputes, and jurisdictional challenges, testing participants’ advanced interpretative and advocacy skills.The team from Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU), Raipur (Mahi Agrawal, Ananya Mishra, and Ambati Nupur Rao) emerged as winners and received a cash prize of ?15,000. The runner-up team from National Law Institute University (NLIU), comprising Sahil Yadav, Hiya Saxena, and Priyam Soni, was awarded ?10,000.The Best Memorial award was won by Symbiosis Law School (SLS), Pune, with Mannat Kaur Sodhi, Shashwat Shiwam, and Sneha Gupta receiving ?5,000. The Best Speaker award of ?5,000 went to Hariroopan Mathan of The Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University, School of Excellence in Law, while the Second Best Speaker award of ?2,500 was presented to Simer Ghuman of Gujarat National Law University.At the valedictory ceremony, Principal Dr Deepa Paturkar and Professor Dr Divya Mittal highlighted the academic legacy and initiatives of ILS Law College. Former CTC president Advocate Ajay Singh and CA Namrata Dedhia, chairperson of the CTC Student Committee, briefed students on the organisation’s academic and professional activities. The judges also interacted with participants, sharing insights from their judicial experience.A CTC representative said the final round marked the intellectual culmination of weeks of preparation and provided finalists with exposure to real-world tax litigation standards under judicial scrutiny.The competition witnessed participation from 16 teams representing leading law institutions across cities, including Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gandhinagar, Goa, Hyderabad, Pune, Raipur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Tiruchirappalli, and Tripura. The preliminary, quarter-final, and semi-final rounds were held online on December 20 and 21 and were judged by senior chartered accountants and advocates, including CA Naresh Sheth, CA Rajiv Luthia, Advocate Anil Balani, and Advocate K S Naveen Kumar.The event was coordinated by CA Namrata Dedhia, CA Charmi G Shah, and CA Mansi Nagda from CTC, along with faculty coordinators Dr Divya Mittal and Prof Bhumika Rathod, under the guidance of Dr Deepa Paturkar, principal of ILS Law College.Organisers said the event reinforced the importance of specialised mooting in shaping future tax professionals by offering students practical advocacy experience and exposure to contemporary indirect tax disputes.
